With over 4,000 young Jews hailing from the U.S., Canada, Argentina, Brazil, France and Britain in the audience, Taglit-Birthright Israel celebrated the arrival of the program's 400,000th participant in a festive ceremony at the Caesarea Amphitheater on Tuesday.

The Zionist project, founded 14 years ago, takes young Jews from around the world on a 10-day trip to Israel, free of charge. Since its inception, over 70,000 Israelis have also participated in the programs as counselors and guides.

Credit: Kobi Meiri

The project continued to grow and now has government support, and funding from Jewish donors and Jewish communities around the world, led by Sheldon Adelson and his wife Dr. Miriam Adelson, who were present at Tuesday's event.

"Many years ago, you would be too young to remember, Dr. Yossi Beilin who's sitting here with us, came to me, I remember, with evidently a crazy idea, and the idea was to bring thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Jewish young men and women to the State of Israel," Netanyahu said. "Now, the idea was so far-fetched that I thought: well, if he's crazy, I'm crazy too, but I could put in so much, I did, as the Prime Minister of Israel, but he found other crazy partners, and two of the most distinguished ones who are putting their hearts, not only putting their hands in their pockets, putting their hearts into this are Dr. Miri and Sheldon Adelson -- two pioneers and visionaries."

Speaking to the Taglit-Birthright Israel participants in the crowd, Netanyahu said, "Israel is your homeland, you are our ambassadors."

Netanyahu also talked about the three Israeli teens kidnapped two weeks ago. "We will not stop until we find those boys and bring them home, and we will find their kidnappers," he said.

Sheldon Adelson called on the participants to represent Israel in their home countries. "There are 4,000 of you here tonight, most countries only get one ambassador from the State of Israel. But since we are all one big family, we have more appointments of ambassadors and that's what we want to make out of every one of you, to go back and tell the truth," he said.

The Adelson family owns the company that is the primary shareholder in Israel Hayom.